Niels Bohr Institute

A broad spectrum of astronomy and astrophysics is researched at the Niels Bohr Institute – everything from the visible Universe such as planets, stars and galaxies – to the invisible universe and the presence of dark energy and dark matter.

The NBI astrophysicists participate in many international projects and have access to modern telescopes and satellites via, e.g. Denmark’s membership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the European Space Agency (ESA), and to state-of-the-art supercomputers.

Biocomplexity is a cutting-edge area of research between physics and biology. By using the principles and methods of physics one can explore the living nature and biological phenomena.

Researchers at BioComplexity continuously explore the diversity of complex phenomena in biological, physical and social systems, including pattern formation, complex and chaotic dynamics, fluid dynamics, game theory, networks and econophysics.

Physics approaches are used to suggest and perform experiments and models of living systems. The systems range from proteins and gene regulation to larger-scale collective spatiotemporal structure formation. The research at the institute is often performed as a collaboration between physicists, biologists, medical doctors, and nanoscientists.

Condensed matter physics is concerned with the understanding of the physical properties of solids and liquids, both naturally occurring and artificially produced.

Condensed matter physics is the foundation for many every-day technologies, ranging from hardening of steel to integrated microchips. Modern research in condensed matter physics takes place in both large scale x-ray and neutron scattering facilities, as well as in locally based laboratories, where quantum phenomena are being explored at temperatures near absolute zero. There is a vivid exchange between condensed matter and neighboring research areas, including biophysics, nanoscience, chemistry, optics, and quantum information.

How was the universe created, which inflation scenario played out in the first split second, what happened during the quark-gluon plasma era? What is the source of the mass spectrum of fundamental particles of matter and forces? These are some of the questions particle physicists are looking for answers to.

The Particle Physicists work with the build up of matter in the early universe. They are searching for an explanation as to what the universe's smallest components were composed of in the first milliseconds after the Big Bang 14 billion years ago and what forces held them together.

The section for the Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth at the Niels Bohr Institute studies the elements of the Earth and climate system – the atmosphere, oceans, ice sheets and glaciers, sea ice, and the solid Earth itself – and the interactions between them.

The Quantum Optics section conducts experimental and theoretical research in Quantum Optics, in particular, in Quantum Information Processing, Quantum Sensors , and Quantum Technologies.

We use photons, from optics to microwaves interacting with a wide variety of quantum matter, such as quantum dots, single atoms, atomic ensembles and mechanical oscillators.

The overarching theme is generation and manipulation of non-classical entangled states for quantum simulation, sensing and communication. The research directions span from fundamental research to device engineering.

The Theoretical high energy, astroparticle and gravitational physics at the Niels Bohr Institute is involved in a wide scope of research activities centered around quantum theories of gauge fields, gravity and astrophysics.

Research areas include scattering amplitudes, effective field theory, black holes, holography, lattice simulations, quantum gravity, integrability, astroparticle physics, and cosmology.

The Cosmic Dawn Center is an Astronomy/Cosmology research center, founded as a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen and DTU Space of the Danish Technical University (DTU). The center is led by center director and NBI Professor Sune Toft and center co-director Thomas Greve, Professor at DTU and UCL.[4] The main objective of the center is to investigate the period known as the Cosmic Dawn (the transition period following the Cosmic Dark Ages),[5] i.e. the reionization of the Universe and the formation of the first galaxies, through observations as well as through theory and simulations.[6]

Research conducted at the center is focused on the specific period in the history of the Universe known as the Cosmic Dawn. This largely unexplored period, 300-600 million years after the Big Bang is when the first stars, black holes, and galaxies are believed to have formed.[7][8] Many of the observations used by the center originate from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), one of the more powerful telescopes in the world.[9] In the future, the center aims to mainly use the James Webb Space Telescope[10][11] and the Euclid Telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA).[12] DAWN scientists were instrumental in the construction of three instruments (NIRSpec, MIRI and NIRISS) for the project,[13] and will be involved in the analysis of the first data from the telescope.[14]

As of April 18, 2020, DAWN authors have published at least 187 refereed papers garnering 1602 citations, which, among others, can be found at the NASA/ADS library.[15]

• Observation of inverse Compton emission from a long γ-ray burst:[16]
• Identification of strontium in the merger of two neutron stars:[17]
• Signatures of a jet cocoon in early spectra of a supernova associated with a γ-ray burst:[18]
• Stellar Velocity Dispersion of a Massive Quenching Galaxy at z = 4.01:[19]